1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic telephone answering apparatus, the method performed by it and, more particularly, to an automatic telephone answering apparatus which is capable of sending a specific message to a specific destination of a user after an incoming message is recorded.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional automatic telephone answering apparatus, when an incoming call is detected while a user is out, an outgoing message prerecorded in a recording medium, such as a magnetic tape or a solid-state memory, is reproduced to inform the caller that the called party is out. Thereafter, an incoming message from the calling party is recorded on the magnetic tape or in the solid-state memory.
In another conventional automatic telephone answering apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,642 (McClure), automatic dialing is performed for a destination telephone set at a remote location where the user is to be in order to inform the user that an incoming message was recorded while the user was out. In such an automatic telephone answering apparatus, a telephone number of the destination telephone set is stored in a storage device such as a memory, and the remote telephone set is accessed on the basis of the stored telephone number upon completion of the recording of the incoming message. At the same time, cyclic beep tones of an INTER signal are sent. When the user answers the phone, i.e., the destination telephone set is set in the off-hook state, the user can listen to the beep tones and known that the incoming message has been recorded.
After the user listens to the beep tones, he or she sends a remote control signal having a specific code by using the numerical keys of the key telephone system located at the remote place where the user is present. The recorded incoming message can then be automatically played back to the user.
However, when the remote telephone set cannot be set in the off-hook state, for example because it is in use, the apparatus calls the user within a predetermined period of time and stops calling the user after the lapse of the predetermined period of time.
Assume that the user or any person other than the user answers the phone and listens to the beep tones and did not send back the remote control signal to the automatic telephone answering apparatus. In this case, the automatic telephone answering apparatus continuously sends the beep tones within the predetermined period of time and stops sending them after the lapse of the period. In this case, the telephone circuit is disengaged from the telephone lines, and the automatic telephone answering apparatus calls the user again when a predetermined period (e.g., five minutes) has elapsed.
If the user or the person other than the user is not present again or the remote control signal is not sent back to the automatic telephone answering apparatus, it calls the destination telephone set after a predetermined period of time (e.g., 15 minutes) has elapsed. A plurality of calls are then made at intervals of 30 and 60 minutes in the same manner as described above.
In the conventional automatic telephone answering apparatus in which the user is informed by beep tones that the incoming message has been recorded, if a person other than the user answers the remote phone and does not know the meaning of the beep tones, this person does not know from where the call is being made and to whom the call is being made. The person may believe that this call is a wrong call. When the predetermined period of time has elapsed, the call from the automatic telephone answering apparatus is stopped. Because of this problem, such calls often cannot be made to the user, and the primary purpose of the beep tones often cannot be achieved.
Although the subsequent calls are made a plurality of times, i.e., after the lapses of 15, 30, and 60 minutes, if a person other than the user answers the remote phone again, the primary purpose cannot be realized. In addition, the person answering the remote phone may feel anxious because he only hears the unintelligible beep tones.